How To Get Rid of Spider Webs

Ok, so spiders webs are taking over your property. Sprays aren’t working. When you remove them with a brush, they are back the next day. It can often feel like they can’t be stopped.

Don’t panic.

As third-generation natives of West Palm Beach, we’ve been there. So have our parents and our grandparents. Over many years of dealing with spiders in South Florida, we’ve perfected how to control them and how to keep their webs away from your home.

Where Do Spiders Come From?

To stop spider webs, you have to get rid of the spiders. While this is common sense, it’s easier said than done.

The first step you should take is to get rid of their food source. If they don’t have food around your house, they’ll prefer to hang out (literally) at your neighbor’s place instead.

Most of the new calls we get asking about spiders and spider web removal come from Delray Beach and Boynton Beach. The reason for this, especially in the Western communities, is that these areas are mainly new developments and they are often surrounded by nurseries and farmland. These areas have lots of moist soil and standing water present, creating a prime breeding ground for flying insects. As these insects are born and take flight, they immediately are attracted at night to the nearby lights coming from your community.

These mosquitoes, fungus gnats, flies and midges that are heading to your home are the primary food source for spiders. It is no surprise spider webs are popping up all over your property when these insects are throwing themselves towards your lights by the thousands on a nightly basis.

To Stop Spiders You Must Get Rid of Flying Insects

Now that we know spiders are setting up shop around your home to eat flying insects, how do we stop the flying insects?

First, turn off the lights! By reducing or eliminating lighting, you are taking away the reason flying insects are heading to your property. Ok, so the lights are for security? You still have other options. By switching to yellow bulbs or installing fixtures over bare light bulbs, you will reduce the brightness the lights are creating. The lights will still attract some insects, but they will prefer the bright white light coming from the homes of your neighbors. You may also look into installing motion sensor lighting so they are only on for short periods of time at night.

Second, reduce the number of days and the amount of time your irrigation system runs. Don’t worry too much about keeping the grass and plants alive, the vast majority of people overwater their lawns and plants. Also, make sure you have a functioning rain sensor which turns your sprinkler system off when recent rainfall is detected. Many flying insects such as fungus gnats breed in moist soil, so by reducing watering you will reduce the number breeding on your property.

Another option to keep flying insects away from your doors and windows is to set up exterior fans. A good floor fan set up strategically on your back patio will be too strong for most flying bugs to handle.

Lastly, you can always break out the big guns. A good mosquito control program will include monthly backpack fogging applications on your property to eliminate mosquito harborage areas. It will also include the treatment of standing water with biological larvicides to prevent any breeding from occurring on your property.

Get Rid of Spider Webs Permanently

Now that there is significantly less food available for spiders around the outside of your home, we can move on to the next step. Actually targeting the spiders themselves.

Frequent manual removal of spider webs will take away their ability to catch their prey. It will also kill some of the spiders in the process. We find manual removal to be very effective, and on every service we perform we use an extension pole with a webber head to remove webs around doors/windows/eaves/garage doors. We have found that a light dusting of the webber head with Diatomaceous Earth is effective at long term spider control and will result in less webs on the exterior of your home.

No pole with a webber extension? No problem. You can also use a vacuum to manually removal webs. Without the Diatomaceous Earth being applied, you will need to remove them more frequently but the process will still be effective and worthwhile.

We’ve also found that treatment of cracks and crevices on the exterior of the home with a residual pest control product is effective at eliminating spiders and keeping them away. A frequent hiding spot of spiders we target is the space between exterior gutters and the walls of houses. By using a micro-encapsulated product, longer control can be obtained. These products contain a capsule that breaks down and slowly releases the active ingredient so it can last longer in our tropical environment. It’s also safer than traditional pest control products due to the slow-release properties of the product.